Foes may arm Syria militants with chemical weapons: Analyst

A Damascus-based political commentator believes that a possible possession and use of chemical weapons by foreign-backed militants against the pro-Assad population would be really alarming and dangerous.

Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Maqdad says Western countries are preparing the ground for a military intervention against the Arab country under sham concerns over possible use of chemical weapons by Damascus. In an interview with the Lebanese news channel al-Manar on Thursday, Maqdad dismissed as “theater” reports that Damascus was preparing to use chemical weapons during the ongoing turmoil in Syria. Maqdad said Syria’s foes might give “terrorists” chemical weapons and then blame the use of them on Damascus. He also stressed that the Syrian Army will continue to fight the anti-government armed forces.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Alaa Ibrahim, a journalist and political commentator in Damascus, to further shed light on the issue. The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: It is very disturbing what that video showed and in particular some of those chemicals that were being used there were Turkish made. Now tell us do you think that this is indeed what may happen, that Syria’s government being set up by the West through the rebels using this poisonous gas and then blaming it on the government? The deputy foreign minister has said this is the conspiracy that is being hatched.

Ibrahim: Unfortunately, first of all, Syria has been the source of many disturbing videos this year and the year before it of people getting killed but this is certainly alarming. It is alarming for many reasons.

First of all, we do know that the insurgents will spare no effort in their fight against the government forces and they have shown some sectarian trends in their targeting of certain places where certain minorities are residing these places.

So it is very alarming that they might possess some kind of weapons that would have such a killing power, actually.

Second of all, as for the conspiracy that the Vice Foreign Minister Dr. Faisal Maqdad spoke about, yes, such a conspiracy could exist but I do not think it is imminent right now.

Let’s bear in mind that if the West or the Western powers would like to stage an incident where the Syrian army uses chemical weapons of any kind, it is not very difficult to stage such an accident and it would be easy for them.

I do not think it is something we should worry about when they put their mind into invading Syria or put their minds into doing something military against Syria, they will not lack the motive or they would not lack the reason or to create a reason or pretext for this attack.

So I do not think this is an imminent danger but I think the most disturbing thing is what you mentioned. If the insurgents who are known to be irresponsible, who are people we have seen willing to carry out executions and mass killing have this kind of weapons, it is very alarming.

I do not think the Turkish government is supplying chemical weapons to the insurgents but they definitely might be turning a blind eye to the insurgents getting their hands on some materials that can be used for the manufacturing of basic chemical weapons which is not difficult by the way.